Recently, we connected with another line of underground Christians in North Korea. As usual, the common   request from new connectees is for us to send them Bibles. We oblige them by providing Bibles to them through various means.

Of course, we are always impressed by the request for Bibles. Living in a place where being found with a Bible means at least imprisonment if not also death, Bibles would be hard for them to come by and not easy to ask for. But what we were more impressed by was that, even before asking us for Bibles, they were quoting scripture word for word!

When asked how they were able to quote scriptures so well, as if they had a Bible, one person responded as follows:

As we (the people in our underground church group) have lived for decades, half of that time has been spent in church. As we study in church, of course our heads have become stuffed full about the Bible. But there are things which we have written down as well. If you send us Bible books, we will be thankful.

The keen eye will notice two things about what the underground Christian said.

First, the underground Christian said that half of their lives have been spent in church. When we hear this, our first thought may be to wonder how they could have spent that much time living in the church since there are no church buildings! But for the NK underground Christian, the church is not a building, it is the term used to refer collectively to the body of believers.

Second, the underground Christian said that their heads have become “stuffed full about the Bible.” But how could their heads have been stuffed full with the Bible if they do not have Bibles? For the underground Christian, “Bible” refers to the word of God itself, not to the container (be it a in a book, an MP3 player, or one’s own head/heart) which houses the word of God. This is why they specifically ask for “Bible books”.

Even after all of these years of doing North Korean ministry, we are amazed by and learn from underground Christians. And we are humbled when they ask us for help when, in fact, we need theirs.

• Pray for Bible distributions inside NK – By God’s grace, we are making new connections with underground Christians and distributing Bibles into NK through many means, new and old. Please pray for the underground Christians who are receiving Bibles through these connections.
• Pray for the security of our NK partners – Their lives are constantly at risk as they engage in discrete discipleship and evangelism activities. Please pray for their security in the midst of their faithfulness.